


Emergency Room

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen, may be AnnexAlex if you squint, the SSL games probably aren't canon anymore but they're all I know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18727849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: The first time Alex uses her newfound powers, her world comes crashing down around her. Based on Alex's Anne story.





	Emergency Room

In many ways, Alex’s newfound destiny and the subsequent arrival of magical powers made all the sense in the world. She was always the warrior, you had to be when you lived in Crow’s Nest. It was the seediest part of Jorvik City, everyone knew that. The rough side of the tracks, everyone said. Only druggies and gangs came from Crow’s Nest, and if you weren’t a druggie or gang member, chances were you had one in your family. Not knowing who one parent was was also a common thing there. Alex had no idea who her father was. Didn’t even know if she shared paternity with any of her brothers. They’d all inherited her mother’s blonde hair, as had Alex herself, though she’d dyed it several times. To look cool, mostly. And once, though she hated to remember it, so that she wouldn’t look like a Cloudmill.

But that rebellion had only lasted until she’d heard someone picking on James for being a Cloudmill. Cashless Cloudmills, they were called. Some rumours said that they all slept in the one room in one large pile, like animals. Worse rumours said that Alex had to be the mother of that household. And, worse yet- the rumours with a touch of truth, the ones that said that Alex’s mother did bad things just to put food on the table. So what if she met with mysterious men and came home late if at all? That was her business, and they never went hungry, so there.

But ever since James had started high school, the bullying had ramped up. James was too small to stand up for himself, the perfect size for shoving into lockers or being used as a human football, he wore glasses (which had been broken so many times now that they were permanently taped together over his nose), he was into nerdy things, he liked things too much, he wasn’t cool in any sense of the word.

The first time that Alex had come to James’ defense, she’d picked up the offending child’s backpack and hurled it across the hallway, telling them to go fetch. And then, as the child had run off in tears to collect their backpack and the many items that had spilled out of it, Alex had crouched down and asked James if he was okay. And then she’d hugged him, ruffling his blond hair and promising to always be there to take care of him.

And she had. Even when simply scaring the boys hadn’t been enough, when she’d had to throw a punch or two or stomp on a foot or scream to get her point across, Alex always came to James’ defense. She didn’t walk him around the school, though, only walked to and from school with him, not wanting the others to call him a sook for sucking up to his sister so much. And yet, the taunts still came. Whenever James was in trouble, whenever he started crying or getting wailed on by the other boys (even some girls joined in eventually), Alex would come to his aid, ever the good big sister.

And then, that school year had happened. Lisa Peterson had started at Jorvik City High, having moved there from America. She’d been the talk of the school, though she’d tried to hide in her schoolbooks and new timetable. And then she’d hidden at the stable, where Alex had eventually cornered her and told her to grow a pair and get out of the feed room because she needed to grab some feed for Tin Can.

Alex had never expected that that shy, homesick girl crying in the feed room would have turned her life upside down and changed it completely. No sooner had Lisa arrived than she’d met Starshine, and then he’d been stolen by Dark Core, and all of that had culminated in the little blue squirrel, Fripp, blessing Alex with magical powers, the ability to wield lightning with her hands. Standing there in the Secret Stone Circle, her palms and face lit by the electricity crackling in her palms, Alex had felt more alive than she had in years. Powerful. Exactly the thing she needed to fight those bullies and prove to everyone, once and for all, that the Cloudmill name was not a dirty one, did not belong in the mud. Because from the clouds came lightning.

“You must only use your powers for good, Alex, Soul Strike is a powerful and dangerous thing,” Fripp had said. But Alex had been too busy looking at her hands, her mind buzzing with possibilities, to pay attention to Fripp’s words, to heed his warning. She’d only nodded, saying that yeah, she got it, with great power comes great responsibility, all that jazz.

And Fripp, possibly too eager for them to fight Garnok, possibly forgetting that she was young and would make mistakes, had let her go after one brief lesson in how to use the deadly skill. Less power meant that she’d stun the opponent, more power meant that she’d kill them outright. And there was something about it being only to be used on the goons and monsters of Dark Core. At the time, Alex had been confused- what did a mining company have to do with monsters? Was Fripp just a member of some eco-terrorism group? But she’d pushed that thought to the back of her mind and agreed to fight Dark Core for the good of the world or whatever.

The next day, James got picked on again. Which wasn’t unusual in any sense, he was always being picked on. But this time, when Alex saw the message, she felt more than anger spike in her veins. Along with the familiar burning sensation of anger, there came the crackle of electricity, sparking off her fingertips and her balled fists as she made her way to the part of the school where James was being terrorised by the school bully. Alex didn’t see him clearly, saw nothing beyond red hair, pale skin, and a stocky build in a hockey uniform.

“Leave my brother alone, Buck!” Alex roared, and raised her arm, palm out, blasting the boy with electricity. Alex only realised that it wasn’t Buck when his juddering body fell to the ground, smoke rising from scorched skin. James looked at her, eyes wide behind his glasses, and a girl screamed.

“What did you do to Jeremy?” a girl screamed, rushing towards the boy. Alex froze. She couldn’t even breathe, her throat was closing up, all she could do was stare at the boy’s body.

And then, another girl appeared, the most popular girl in school. Anne von Blyssen. She strode past Alex, brushing her with her shoulder.

“Stand back!” she snapped, hazel eyes flashing. “All of you, get back to class, go!” Nobody moved. “Now!” Anne roared at them. Alex had never heard such authority, such command, in the girl’s voice. And then Anne turned to look at Alex, her hard gaze softening slightly at how shaken Alex looked.

“A-Anne?” Alex stammered, shaking. She was glad that Anne had stepped between her and the boy on the ground, so she wouldn’t see him.

“Alex Cloudmill, right?” Anne asked. Alex nodded. “I thought so. Did you do this?”

“Y-yeah,” said Alex, nodding, tears brimming in her eyes. Anne sighed, though she didn’t look disappointed.

“Hold onto me,” said Anne. “Just take my hand or something.”

“But what if I hurt you?” Alex asked, the tears overflowing now. Her voice was a broken whisper.

Without any warning, Anne grabbed Alex’s hand, along with the back of the injured boy’s shirt, and the next thing Alex saw was pink. But once the pink had founded, she found them in the emergency room of the local hospital. Anne strode over to the front desk, explained the situation calmly yet urgently, and returned to Alex, holding the hand that had fired that shot. Anne’s hand was warm in Alex’s, reassuring.

“We should probably sit down,” said Anne, her voice gentle now. “Come on.” She took a seat, as did Alex on shaky legs, and then rejoined their hands.

“Did I kill him?” Alex asked, her voice still fraying around the edges. She felt like she was breaking apart, her body trembling so much that her teeth chattered.

“No,” said Anne. “Not quite. He just got a nasty shock, that’s all. I told the nurses that he was struck by a freak lightning bolt. Weird stuff like that happens all the time.”

“No it doesn’t,” said Alex. She tried to tug her hand out of Anne’s but Anne kept a tight hold on it. She felt like she needed a hug, but she didn’t want to cry all over the beautiful Anne von Blyssen. Anne’s family made more money than her mother made in a minute. Alex hated them. Or she used to. There was no denying that Anne was pretty, though. But maybe Alex was just distracting herself. She hated this girl, hated how pretty she was and how smart and how perfect and how much better than her and just how far out of her league she was.

“Just breathe, Alex,” said Anne. “Breathe deeply. Out through the nose. In through the mouth. It’s going to be okay.”

“No it’s not, I’ve had these powers for a day and I’ve already fucked everything up,” said Alex, burying her face in the one hand that Anne let her have, raking her fingers through her blonde hair so that her beanie fell back and off. She sniffled, gulping in a breath of air in what was almost a hiccup. Her breath came back out in a sob, and now, Anne changed which hand was holding Alex’s and used her other to embrace Alex’s shaking shoulders, rubbing her upper arm and then her back as Alex cried into her hand. She’d never cried so much before, but now, she felt like she couldn’t stop. She felt like she had after a bad fight with her mother, when she’d declared that she wished she wasn’t a Cloudmill, when she’d vowed to go and make something of her life and not sit around stuck in the life that her birth gave her. And a great job of that she’d done, too.

Anne let her cry, though, rubbing her back soothingly. She didn’t say much, only kept reassuring Alex. The words fell on deaf ears, though, Alex too distraught to listen clearly. And then, when Alex tried to wipe her streaming nose with the hand that held Anne’s, Anne thrust a tissue box at her and got up to drag the wastepaper basket over to them. For a while, Alex tried to dry her eyes, tried to clear the snot from her nose. But then, one look at the hallway and Alex dissolved into tears again, hiding her face in Anne’s shoulder like a child as she clung to her. The boy’s parents had walked in, and Alex couldn’t look at them. What was she supposed to say? That their kid had been bullying her brother and she’d thought that he was a guy who might not be wholly human? That she’d just zapped him with arcane magic because she was trying to defend her brother? That she was a monster?

When the boy’s mother walked over, Alex wanted to hide. She tried to hold her breath, though that only made her chest feel heavier. She heard Anne spinning that same lie to the boy’s mother, saying that Alex had seen it and had had a bad reaction. Understatement of the year. As the woman left, she said that Anne and her girlfriend could leave now, that they’d be fine. Neither of them corrected her, but Alex took the opportunity to stumble out the doors and into the hospital parking lot. It was still the middle of the day, and sunny despite Alex’s mood.

“I-I can catch the bus from here,” said Alex, feeling lighter now that she was outside and away from the scene of her crime. But oh god, what was she going to tell James? Her anxiety started to rise again, but Anne’s hand was in hers once more.

“You will do no such thing, Alex Cloudmill,” said Anne.

“You’re right, I should turn myself in,” said Alex, the trembling returning worse than before.

“No,” said Anne. “I’ll call someone, she’s an expert at dealing with stuff like this.” She slid her phone from her pocket, and Alex heard her talking to someone named Elizabeth.

Some amount of time passed while Alex sat on a bench outside the hospital crying into Anne’s shirt again. But then, a Volkswagen Beetle, of all things, pulled up, pale green in colour. And a woman with long red hair, clad in a green dress patterned with strange symbols, stepped out and approached them.

“Alex Cloudmill?” she asked. Her voice was so soft. Motherly. Alex looked up at her, expecting to see disappointment, but she saw only a warm smile.

“Yeah, that’s me,” said Alex, sniffing.

“My name is Elizabeth Sunbeam,” said the woman. “I work with Fripp, though he didn’t think to contact me. I can tell you everything you need to know about being a Soul Rider, and help you to control your magic.”

“Really?” Alex asked, shaking. But there was just the tiniest glimmer of hope now.

“I’ve helped the other three,” said Elizabeth, nodding to Anne. “Now it’s your turn. And don’t worry- the boy will be fine. One of our druids works at this hospital, she’s an expert at dealing with magically-inflicted injuries and explaining away anything that science can’t explain.”

“That does make me feel a bit better,” said Alex. She felt like she could finally breathe again.

“I’m glad,” said Elizabeth, giving her a smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse the cramped quarters, I’ll drive you to my place and explain everything better than Fripp did. Does that sound okay?”

“Beats going back to school,” said Alex weakly.

“I’ll come with you too,” said Anne. “I’m ahead anyway, and Linda’s still taking notes for me. And being paid handsomely for it, so it’s about time she got paid for doing something.”

“Are you sure?” Alex asked.

“I don’t want to leave you alone right now,” said Anne. “You need someone. And yes, Elizabeth is exceptional company, but maybe someone around your own age would be preferable.” Alex hugged Anne again, not quite so crushingly tight this time but tight all the same.

“Thank you,” Alex murmured. She felt Anne’s hand stroke gently down her back. It felt good. Like everything would be okay.


End file.
